NRL star’s wife under fire for holding anti-vaccination workshops

The wife of a NRL star has been slammed as "irresponsible" for claiming parents are being "bullied" into vaccinating their children.

Taylor Winterstein, wife of Manly Sea Eagles forward Frank Winterstein, is running a series of workshops around Australia, New Zealand and Samoa, discussing the safety of vaccinations.

Winterstein has two children, who are not vaccinated.

She describes herself as "a qualified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach" and a "huge self-education advocate and big believer that you do not need a qualification to know how to critically think for yourself."

"I live for holistic health and thrive off self-education,” the mum says.

Winterstein’s workshops, which cost $200 per ticket, are designed to "foster transparency, arm us with groundbreaking information, liberate us from a fear-mongering culture and take back control of our family’s health," according to her website.

"We are now put in a position where true informed consent can not exist and the narrative surrounding vaccines is always the same," she claims on the site.

"The benefits of vaccines are constantly over exaggerated and the risk of an adverse reaction severely down played by politicians, journalists and GPs.

"The dogmatic mantra 'vaccines are safe and effective' doesn’t leave much room for a productive or objective conversation.

Winterstein claims she's not an anti-vaxxer and says "if anything I am an ex-vaxxer and I stand for informed consent". (Instagram/tays_ways_)

"I have never once said not to vaccinate, if anything I am an ex-vaxxer and I stand for informed consent, freedom of choice and vaccine injury awareness," she writes on Instagram, via an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

"My husband and I are proud of how we raise our healthy, happy, thriving children."

But the NSW president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Kean-Seng Lim, says vaccinations were backed by science.

"The risk of serious adverse reaction is extraordinarily small … compared to the risk of having a severe illness after actually contracting one of these disease — the risk of the vaccine itself is quite tiny."

He also criticised Mrs Winterstein’s plans to speak in Samoa, saying it would be “absolutely irresponsible” to spread her message in a third world country.

His sentiments were echoed by NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard who said parents who don't vaccinate their children were "completely irresponsible".

"If you’d seen a child die or have amputations because of a failure to vaccinate you wouldn’t be making such dopey assertions," Mr Hazzard told the Telegraph.

"Thank heavens we didn't have loopy advice years ago when we stamped out polio."

In February, Shanelle Cartwright - who is married to Gold Coast Titans star Bryce Cartwright – announced she wouldn't be vaccinating either of her children, claiming "vaccines do not equal immunity".

The Australian Government is clear on its stance towards vaccinations: "Immunisation is a safe and effective way to protect you and your children from harmful, contagious diseases. It also safeguards the health of other people, now and for future generations.

"Before vaccination campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s, diseases like tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough killed thousands of children. Today, it is extremely rare to die from these diseases in Australia."